| Three basic problems have led theologians to think that there is a "gap" between God and our talk about God: (a) the problem of relating ordinary concepts to God, (b) the problem of seeing concepts as "veils" which stand between us and God, and (c) the problem of God so transcending the world that we can have nothing to do with God "in Godself." Instead of trying to bridge this "gap," I provide alternative ways of understanding God and the way concepts work so as to render the "gap" optional. Toward this end, I provide an account of God's relationship to the world according to which there is no "gap" between God's being-in-Godself and God's being-with-us. On the account provided here, God has eternally bound Godself to us, such that there is no height or depth in which God is anything other than God-with-us. I then elaborate an understanding of the way concepts work in order to avoid the supposition that concepts either stand between us and objects or are incapable of being applied to God, and I suggest how this understanding applies to theological discourse. As a result of these two steps, we can account for the application of concepts to God, the meaningfulness of our talk about God, and the fact that our talk can really be about God. In the next step, I argue for a revised understanding of the truth of ordinary statements and then demonstrate how this understanding can account for the truth of statements about God. As with meaning and reference, we will argue that the truth of our talk about God depends upon God's triune activity. Finally, I establish that this account preserves the positive contributions offered by alternative accounts, especially accounts which depend upon analogy, metaphor, and "participation." At the end of these six steps, we will have entitled ourselves to the argument that we can do without the idea of "gaps" between God and our talk of God. |
